The six defendants facing decades in prison for protesting Donald Trump’s inauguration have been found not guilty, in a trial that sparked a
national conversation on First Amendment rights in the age of Trump.

A Washington, DC jury cleared the defendants of all seven charges against them. The defendants were the first of nearly 200 people slated to stand
trial for their involvement in the 20 January protests. Their trial is expected to set the precedent for how the remainder of the defendants will be
prosecuted moving forward.

The six defendants all attended the Disrupt J20 march in Washington – an event that DC Metropolitan Police say eventually turned violent, resulting
in some $100,000 in property destruction. In their opening arguments, however, the prosecution conceded they had no evidence of the six defendants
engaging in any of the property destruction themselves.

This is just coming out now so there's not really much in terms of details. I'll try to keep this thread updated as details emerge.

There's really no other way this could have ended. The only thing the prosecutor was ever able to prove is that these people were in the vicinity of
the protest. They couldn't even prove these people were actually taking part in the protest.

It was clear during closing arguments that the prosecutor knew they had failed to prove their case. They outright told the jury to ignore the judge's
instructions in regards to reasonable doubt.

I know a large part of ATS will probably hate this decision but this truly is a good thing. The 1st Amendment still means something.

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